The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

Claire Economidou; Dimitris Karamanis; Alexandra Kechrinioti; Sofia Xesfingi

doi:10.2478/izajodm-2020-0003

Figures & Tables

European attitudes toward immigration is bad or good for country’s economy.

Sentiments toward immigration, standards of living, social trust, and size of foreign stock (%).2a: Sentiments towards Immigration, Standards of Living and Size of Foreign-stock (%)”2b: Sentiments towards Immigration, Social Trust and Size of Foreign-stock (%)”

Country attitudes toward immigration is bad or good for country’s economy.

Trends of European attitudes toward immigration.

Number of obs by country and wave

Country	ESS waves
Country	Countrycode	2002(obs)	2004(obs)	2006(obs)	2008(obs)	2010(obs)	2012(obs)	2014(obs)
Austria	AUT	2,257	2,256	2,405	–	–	–	1,795
Belgium	BEL	1,899	1,778	1,798	1,760	1,704	1,869	1,769
Switzerland	CHE	2,040	2,141	1,804	1,819	1,506	1,493	1,532
Czech Republic	CZE	1,360	3,026	–	2,018	2,386	2,009	2,148
Germany	DEU	2,919	2,870	2,916	2,751	3,031	2,958	3,045
Denmark	DNK	1,506	1,487	1,505	1,610	1,576	1,650	1,502
Estonia	EST	–	1,989	1,517	1,661	1,793	2,380	2,051
Spain	ESP	1,729	1,663	1,876	2,576	1,885	1,889	1,925
Finland	FIN	2,000	2,022	1,896	2,195	1,878	2,197	2,087
France	FRA	1,503	1,806	1,986	2,073	1,728	1,968	1,917
United Kingdom	GBR	2,052	1,897	2,394	2,352	2,422	2,286	2,264
Greece	GRC	2,566	2,406	–	2,072	2,715	–	–
Hungary	HUN	1,685	1,498	1,518	1,544	1,561	2,014	1,698
Ireland	IRL	2,046	2,286	1,800	1,764	2,576	2,628	2,390
Italy	ITA	1,207	–	–	–	–	960	–
Netherlands	NLD	2,364	1,881	1,889	1,778	1,829	1,845	1,919
Norway	NOR	2,036	1,760	1,750	1,549	1,548	1,624	1,436
Poland	POL	2,110	1,716	1,721	1,619	1,751	1,898	1,615
Portugal	PRT	1,511	2,052	2,222	2,367	2,150	2,151	1,265
Sweden	SWE	1,999	1,948	1,927	1,830	1,497	1,847	1,791
Slovenia	SVN	1,519	1,442	1,476	1,286	1,403	1,257	1,224
Slovakia	SVK	–	1,512	1,766	1,810	1,856	1,847	–
Total		38,308	41,436	36,166	38,434	38,795	38,770	35,373

Social capital (as a factor of 13 variables), control function estimates

	Economy	Culture	Place to live	Same race	Different race	Poorer/non-EU
Gender	0.827*** (0.0288)	1.091 (0.0612)	1.020 (0.0507)	0.962 (0.0382)	0.975 (0.0418)	1.014 (0.0461)
Age	1.006 (0.0208)	0.939*** (0.0118)	0.932*** (0.0141)	0.950* (0.0266)	0.900*** (0.0208)	0.879*** (0.0166)
Education Level	1.771*** (0.0752)	1.774*** (0.0707)	1.712*** (0.0718)	1.770*** (0.0962)	1.876*** (0.0962)	1.713*** (0.0826)
Marital status	0.987 (0.0712)	0.986 (0.0267)	0.942 (0.0355)	0.834*** (0.0549)	0.854** (0.0534)	0.932 (0.0613)
Health status	1.112*** (0.0262)	1.081*** (0.0227)	1.131*** (0.0352)	1.152*** (0.0436)	1.149*** (0.0437)	1.123*** (0.0406)
Income level	1.168*** (0.0354)	1.081*** (0.0238)	1.070*** (0.0164)	1.163*** (0.0214)	1.121*** (0.0236)	1.102*** (0.0298)
Domicile	1.163*** (0.0453)	1.203*** (0.0736)	1.172*** (0.0463)	1.129*** (0.0379)	1.148*** (0.0377)	1.083** (0.0364)
Employment status	0.845** (0.063)	0.821** (0.062)	0.888 (0.0859)	0.838** (0.0680)	0.800** (0.0893)	0.920 (0.124)
Religiousness	1.107*** (0.0270)	1.104** (0.0434)	1.148*** (0.0338)	1.478 (0.492)	1.478 (0.495)	1.267 (0.416)
Political orientation	0.757*** (0.0367)	0.664*** (0.0398)	0.693*** (0.0384)	0.742*** (0.0281)	0.658*** (0.0331)	0.655*** (0.0327)
Immigrant parents	1.611*** (0.149)	1.492*** (0.0840)	1.695*** (0.130)	1.314*** (0.0577)	1.304*** (0.0814)	1.264*** (0.0749)
Social capital	2.101*** (0.398)	2.611*** (0.547)	2.352*** (0.666)	1.101*** (0.0406)	1.090** (0.0383)	1.154*** (0.0373)
D_HighSDPcap	1.142*** (0.0321)	1.319 (0.424)	1.246 (0.395)	1.354 (0.462)	1.254 (0.478)	1.307 (0.536)
D_HighDebt	1.125*** (0.0407)	0.654 (0.225)	0.731 (0.266)	0.784 (0.249)	0.586 (0.263)	0.619 (0.309)
D_{HighElderlyPop}	0.759 (0.139)	1.060 (0.387)	1.021 (0.375)	1.144(0.347)	1.138 (0.510)	1.032 (0.509)
D_{HighAsylumSeekers}	0.407*** (0.109)	0.561 (0.233)	0.492* (0.208)	0.768 (0.344)	0.466 (0.225)	0.447 (0.233)
D_{HighForeignStock}	0.451*** (0.0936)	0.773 (0.277)	0.705 (0.242)	1.056 (0.329)	0.682 (0.263)	0.703 (0.300)
D_{HighNationalityAcq}	0.741 (0.214)	0.738 (0.280)	0.956 (0.325)	0.611 (0.196)	0.982 (0.371)	0.944 (0.398)
D_{ColonialTradition}	1.273 (0.338)	0.894 (0.249)	0.697 (0.285)	1.037 (0.514)	1.574 (0.830)	1.497 (0.829)
D_{HighGDPcap&HighForeignStock}	3.312*** (0.907)	1.004 (0.406)	1.118 (0.480)	1.324 (0.576)	2.362* (1.137)	2.616* (1.402)
D_{HighSocialCapital&HighAsylumSeekers}	1.085** (0.0354)	1.067 (0.180)	1.175 (0.175)	1.121 (0.112)	1.104(0.126)	1.082 (0.127)
D_{HighSocialCapital&HighForeignStock}	1.199*** (0.0664)	1.073 (0.115)	1.254*** (0.0877)	1.166* (0.0955)	1.134 (0.0934)	1.070 (0.0961)
D_{HighSocialCapital&HighNationalityAcq}	1.031 (0.113)	1.201 (0.209)	1.064(0.143)	0.957 (0.121)	1.037 (0.138)	1.101 (0.154)
D_{HighSocialCapital&Unemployment}	1.142*** (0.0426)	1.139*** (0.0427)	1.133*** (0.0416)	1.043 (0.0590)	1.120 (0.105)	0.950 (0.0588)
D_{HighSocialCapital&Lowlncome}	1.099** (0.0433)	0.997 (0.0451)	1.092*** (0.0278)	1.111*** (0.0272)	1.102** (0.0432)	1.137*** (0.0328)
Control term	0.826 (0.139)	0.619** (0.124)	0.738 (0.182)	0.965 (0.284)	0.998 (0.291)	1.114 (0.321)
Observations	165,173	165,772	165,331	165,779	165,772	165,573

Country trends toward immigration (“immigration is bad/good for a country’s economy”)

Country	Wave 2002–2004	Wave 2006–2008	Wave 2012–2014
Austria	2.89	–	2.61
Belgium	2.47	2.55	2.42
Czech Republic	2.44	2.31	2.13
Denmark	2.54	2.72	2.56
Estonia	–	2.47	2.64
Finland	2.73	2.80	2.71
France	2.72	2.57	2.45
Germany	2.70	2.70	2.89
Greece	2.14	2.04	–
Hungary	2.33	2.08	2.12
Ireland	2.63	2.60	2.64
Italy	2.79	–	–
Netherlands	2.61	2.76	2.56
Norway	2.79	2.84	2.84
Poland	2.49	2.83	2.61
Portugal	2.55	2.66	2.67
Slovak Republic	–	2.41	–
Slovenia	2.41	2.39	2.31
Spain	2.79	2.73	2.65
Sweden	2.84	2.84	2.89
Switzerland	2.97	3.06	3.05
United Kingdom	2.44	2.53	2.59
Sample mean	2.61	2.59	2.60

Estimates of Europeans’ attitude toward different immigrant types (odd ratios)

Variable	Same race	Different race	Poorer/non-EU
Gender	0.974 (0.016)	1.004 (0.028)	1.051** (0.025)
Age	0.946** (0.026)	0.895*** (0.021)	0.876*** (0.016)
Education level	1.641*** (0.061)	1.728*** (0.061)	1.562*** (0.043)
Marital status	0.836*** (0.058)	0.854** (0.055)	0.939 (0.064)
Health status	1.116*** (0.019)	1.110*** (0.016)	1.075*** (0.018)
Income level	1.156*** (0.020)	1.115*** (0.022)	1.096*** (0.027)
Domicile	1.145*** (0.042)	1.176*** (0.038)	1.107*** (0.036)
Employment status	0.843** (0.067)	0.802* (0.092)	0.930 (0.126)
Religiousness	1.046 (0.036)	1.021 (0.034)	1.066* (0.037)
Political orientation	0.752*** (0.027)	0.669*** (0.032)	0.666*** (0.031)
Immigrant parents	1.352*** (0.060)	1.335*** (0.075)	1.292*** (0.065)
Trust people	2.445*** (0.244)	2.295*** (0.197)	2.052*** (0.146)
Trust legal system	0.905 (0.101)	0.937 (0.118)	0.908 (0.106)
State of health services	1.080 (0.061)	1.072 (0.058)	1.061 (0.045)
State of education system	0.964 (0.035)	0.959 (0.033)	0.942 (0.036)
Social interaction	1.009 (0.023)	0.995 (0.029)	1.025 (0.032)
Church attendance	1.187*** (0.067)	1.269*** (0.087)	1.343*** (0.095)
Worked in political/action group	1.232*** (0.053)	1.272*** (0.096)	1.289*** (0.077)
Contacted politician/government	1.139*** (0.042)	1.127*** (0.052)	1.074* (0.040)
Worn campaign badge/sticker	1.223*** (0.024)	1.266*** (0.048)	1.247*** (0.037)
Taken part in demonstrations	1.361*** (0.045)	1.509*** (0.082)	1.508*** (0.079)
Member of trade union	0.966 (0.035)	0.981 (0.037)	0.982 (0.040)
Feel safe	1.244*** (0.050)	1.344*** (0.042)	1.297*** (0.029)
Victim of burglary/assault	1.054 (0.036)	1.049 (0.038)	1.072** (0.032)
D_HighGDPcap	1.359 (0.444)	1.255 (0.455)	1.292 (0.511)
D_HighDebt	0.788 (0.222)	0.580 (0.240)	0.631 (0.293)
D_{HighElderlyPop}	1.170 (0.340)	1.173 (0.504)	1.056 (0.501)
D_{HighAsylumSeekers}	0.771 (0.316)	0.471* (0.208)	0.450 (0.221)
D_{HighForeignStock}	1.026 (0.295)	0.671 (0.241)	0.673 (0.270)
D_{HighNationalityAcq}	0.598 (0.195)	0.977 (0.368)	0.908 (0.384)
D_{ColonialTradition}	1.015 (0.468)	1.560 (0.760)	1.493 (0.788)
D_HighGDPcap_{&HighForeignStock}	1.174 (0.518)	2.073 (1.024)	2.323 (1.297)
D_HighTrust_{&HighAsylumSeekers}	1.221 (0.149)	1.205 (0.160)	1.192 (0.162)
D_HighTrust_{&HighForeignStock}	1.324** (0.172)	1.285* (0.172)	1.228 (0.169)
D_HighTrust_{&HighNationalityAcq}	1.017 (0.134)	1.100 (0.151)	1.172 (0.173)
D_HighTrust_{&Unemployment}	1.081 (0.057)	1.167 (0.110)	0.991 (0.066)
D_HighTrust_&LowIncome	1.075* (0.040)	1.059** (0.029)	1.063** (0.030)
Control term	0.676 (0.231)	0.912 (0.382)	0.965 ( 0.465)
Observations	165,779	165,772	165,573

Estimates of Europeans’ attitude toward immigrants (odd ratios)

Variable	Economy	Culture	Place to live
Gender	0.832*** (0.022)	1.066 (0.045)	1.028 (0.038)
Age	1.004 (0.018)	0.934*** (0.012)	0.925*** (0.014)
Education level	1.703*** (0.069)	1.735*** (0.071)	1.653*** (0.062)
Marital status	0.987 (0.077)	0.969 (0.028)	0.933* (0.037)
Health status	1.083*** (0.025)	1.088*** (0.022)	1.107*** (0.016)
Income level	1.158*** (0.040)	1.075*** (0.029)	1.070*** (0.023)
Domicile	1.187*** (0.041)	1.202*** (0.063)	1.204*** (0.043)
Employment status	0.833** (0.071)	0.921* (0.044)	0.802*** (0.058)
Religiousness	1.052*** (0.017)	1.077*** (0.029)	1.076*** (0.024)
Political orientation	0.761*** (0.035)	0.676*** (0.039)	0.697*** (0.037)
Immigrant parents	1.649*** (0.139)	1.560*** (0.076)	1.742*** (0.121)
Trust people	2.792*** (0.127)	3.302*** (0.329)	3.157*** (0.334)
Trust legal system	1.159*** (0.059)	1.140 (0.117)	1.066 (0.117)
State of health services	1.314*** (0.054)	1.065 (0.067)	1.219*** (0.059)
State of education system	1.044 (0.030)	1.044 (0.039)	1.090*** (0.030)
Social interaction	1.010 (0.017)	1.054*** (0.019)	1.001 (0.016)
Church attendance	1.176*** (0.055)	1.099 (0.077)	1.264*** (0.085)
Worked in political/ action group	1.419*** (0.091)	1.279** (0.127)	1.326*** (0.088)
Contacted politician/ government	1.096** (0.044)	1.082** (0.034)	1.075* (0.046)
Worn campaign badge/sticker	1.138*** (0.024)	1.254*** (0.039)	1.199*** (0.041)
Taken part in demonstrations	1.524*** (0.068)	1.619*** (0.068)	1.480*** (0.056)
Member of trade union	0.931 (0.050)	1.024 (0.039)	0.971 (0.035)
Feel safe	1.409*** (0.058)	1.398*** (0.072)	1.529*** (0.064)
Victim of burglary/assault	1.025 (0.019)	1.082** (0.040)	1.034 (0.030)
D_HighGDPcap	1.350*** (0.264)	1.427 (0.409)	1.303 (0.374)
D_HighDebt	0.553* (0.171)	0.753 (0.192)	0.639 (0.208)
D_{HighElderlyPop}	0.790 (0.132)	1.121 (0.390)	1.100 (0.381)
D_{HighAsylumSeekers}	0.425*** (0.094)	0.598 (0.239)	0.508* (0.193)
D_{HighForeignStock}	0.491*** (0.088)	0.899 (0.322)	0.777 (0.260)
D_{HighNationalityAcq}	0.779 (0.184)	0.832 (0.278)	1.055 (0.310)
D_{ColonialTradition}	1.220 (0.260)	0.844 (0.208)	0.671 (0.227)
D_HighGDPcap_{&HighForeignStock}	2.975*** (0.729)	0.820 (0.325)	0.942 (0.367)
D_HighTrust_{&HighAsylumSeekers}	1.159* (0.101)	1.057 (0.166)	1.223 (0.177)
D_HighTrust_{&HighForeignStock}	1.206*** (0.069)	1.084 (0.132)	1.327*** (0.146)
D_HighTrust_{&HighNationalityAcq}	1.055 (0.104)	1.234 (0.206)	1.098 (0.148)
D_HighTrust_{&Unemployment}	1.029 (0.057)	1.132** (0.058)	1.175** (0.086)
D_HighTrust_&LowIncome	1.103** (0.053)	0.998 (0.042)	1.062** (0.029)
Control term	0.753 (0.278)	0.745 (0.238)	0.932 (0.356)
Observations	165,173	165,772	165,331

Summary statistics

Variable	Source	Obs	Mean	Standarddeviation	Min	Max
y variables
Economy	ESS	256,331	2.591	0.935	1	4
Culture	ESS	256,850	2.561	1.071	1	4
Place to live	ESS	256,441	2.614	0.892	1	4
Same race	ESS	259,601	2.778	0.849	1	4
Different race	ESS	259,392	2.507	0.872	1	4
Poorer/non-EU		258,859	2.437	0.890	1	4
x variables
Sociodemographic
Gender	ESS	267,005	0.532	0.499	0	1
Age	ESS	267,282	3.754	1.694	1	6
Education level	ESS	265,758	2.279	0.466	1	3
Marital status	ESS	267,282	0.298	0.457	0	1
Health status	ESS	266,995	2.584	0.635	1	3
Income level	ESS	199,430	1.845	0.736	1	3
Domicile	ESS	266,503	1.625	0.484	1	2
Employment Status	ESS	267,282	0.055	0.227	0	1
Religiousness	ESS	265,197	1.945	0.819	1	3
Political orientation	ESS	235,269	1.924	0.750	1	3
Immigrant parents	ESS	266,854	0.144	0.352	0	1
Social capital
Trust people	ESS	266,438	0.644	0.479	0	1
Trust legal system	ESS	260,985	0.640	0.480	0	1
State of health services	ESS	263,854	0.649	0.477	0	1
State of education system	ESS	254,428	0.552	0.497	0	1
Social interaction	ESS	266,668	0.623	0.485	0	1
Church attendance	ESS	266,088	0.256	0.436	0	1
Worked in political/action group	ESS	266,492	0.040	0.196	0	1
Contacted politician/government	ESS	266,424	0.147	0.354	0	1
Worn campaign badge/ sticker	ESS	266,294	0.077	0.267	0	1
Taken part in demonstrations	ESS	266,388	0.066	0.248	0	1
Member of trade union	ESS	263,952	0.424	0.494	0	1
Feel safe	ESS	264,863	0.776	0.417	0	1
Victim of burglary/ assault	ESS	266,551	0.188	0.390	0	1
Feel fair treated as instrument	ESS	265,389	0.537	0.499	0	1
Macroeconomic
GDP per capita (constant 2011, PPP)	WDI	267,282	38,801	18,877	8,815	90,807
Debt (% GDP)	WDI	267,282	57.67	28.51	4.400	146.2
Elderly population (% population)	CIA	267,282	18.47	2.071	12.84	21.76
Foreign participation
Asylum seekers (% population)	OECD	267,282	0.101	0.120	0.0005	0.774
Stock of foreigners (% population)	OECD	267,282	6.623	4.784	0.0164	23.78
Nationality acquisition (% population)	OECD	267,282	0.189	0.148	0.0026	0.624
Colonial tradition	Gallaher et al. (2009)	267,282	0.39	0.488	0	1

The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure A1

Figure A2

Number of obs by country and wave

Social capital (as a factor of 13 variables), control function estimates

Country trends toward immigration (“immigration is bad/good for a country’s economy”)

Estimates of Europeans’ attitude toward different immigrant types (odd ratios)

Estimates of Europeans’ attitude toward immigrants (odd ratios)

Summary statistics

Paradigm

My account